Site of the 1st National Congress of the CCP

Lonely Planet review

On 23 July 1921 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was founded in this French Concession building (then 106 Rue Wantz), at one fell swoop converting this unassuming shíkùmén block into one of Chinese communism's holiest shrines.

The dizzying Marxist spin of the museum commentary is a salutary reminder that Shanghai remains part of the world's largest communist nation. The certainties of that era - whether you sympathise with Mǎlièzhǔyì (Marxist-Leninism) or not - exude a nostalgic appeal in today's Shanghai, where ideology of any shade is fervently shunned.

Beyond the communist narcissism, there's little to see, although historians will enjoy ruminating on the site's historic momentousness.

On the ground floor is the room where the whole Party began, actually the house of one of the delegates Li Hanjun. Up the marble stairs in the 'Exhibition of Historical Relics Showing the Founding of the Communist Party of China' is a highly patriotic hymn to early Chinese communist history with exhibits such as the Chinese translation of Mary E Marcy's The ABC of Das Kapital by Marx .